Personalized identification bracelets have long been utilized to provide useful information and warnings relative to the wearer thereof, as for example "medical alert" bracelets; hospital identification bands and the like. While these devices serve an important function they are not applicable in the immediate amd positive identification of badly burned bodies in the very rare instances of conflagrant disasters, such as an airliner crash or a refinery explosion. While metal engraved identification bracelets would generally withstand the flames and heat of a fiery catastraphe, the cost and difficulty of producing them in a short period of time would all but nullify their use in connection with commercial air travel or most chemical plant applications.
Over the last several years many hundreds of people have been buried in mass or unmarked graves because no identification on their person was able to withstand the flames and disintegration of a fiery disaster. In these situations, officials are confronted with the grisly task of utilizing dental records or other obscure physical evidence in attempting to recognize individual bodies and then with only minimal success. Thus, frequently, coupled with the loss of a loved one the family of a victim is denied the custom of burying him with dignity. Further, without proper identification of a victim insurance claims are difficult to institute.